she were making up her mind about something.

Antimodes was old-fashioned in his attitude toward women. He liked them soft and

perfumed, loving and gentle, with blushing cheeks and properly downcasteyes.He

realized that in this day of powerful female wizards and strong female warriors his

attitude was backward, but he was comfortable with it. He frowned slightly to indicate his

own disapproval of this young hoyden and clucked at Jenny, urging her in the direction of

the public stables, located near the blacksmith's shop. The stables, the blacksmith's, and

the baker's shop, with its immense ovens, were three of the few buildings in Solace

situated on the ground.

Even as Antimodes passed by the young woman, he could feel her brown-eyed gaze

focused on him, wondering, considering.

Antimodes saw to it that Jenny was comfortably established, with an

extra measure of feed and a promise from the stableboy to provide the

donkey with extra attention, all paid for, of course, in good Krynn steel,

which he laid out with a lavish hand.

This done, the archmage took the nearest staircase leading up to the

bridge walks. The stairs were many, and he was hot and out of breath by

the time he finished the climb. The shadows of the vallenwoods' thick

foliage cooled him, however, providing a shady canopy under which to

walk. After a moment's pause to catch his breath, Antimodes followed the

suspended walkway that led toward theInnof the Last Home.

On his way, he passed numerous small houses perched high in the tree

branches. House designs varied in Solace, for each had to conform to the

tree in which it stood. By law, no part of the living vallenwood could be

cut or burned or in any other way molested. Every house used the broad

trunk for at least one wall, while the branches formed the ceiling beams.

The floors were not level, and there was a noticeable rocking motion to

the houses during windstorms. Such irregularities were considered

charming by the inhabitants of Solace. They would have driven

Antimodes crazy.

TheInnof the Last Home was the largest structure in Solace. Standing

some forty feet above ground level, it was built around the bole of a

massive vallenwood, which formed part of theInn's interior. A veritable

thicket of timbers supported the inn from beneath. The common room

and the kitchen were on the lowest level. Sleeping rooms were perched

above and could be reached by a separate entrance; those requiring

privacy were not forced to traipse through the common room.

The inn's windows were made of multicolored stained glass, which,

according to local legend, had been shipped all the way from Palanthas.

The stained glass was an excellent advertisement for the business; the

colors glinting in the shadows of the leaves caused the eye to turn in that

direction, when otherwise the inn might have been hidden among the

foliage.

Antimodes had eaten a light breakfast, and he was therefore hungry

enough to do full justice to the proprietor's renowned cooking. The climb

up the stairs had further sharpened Antimodes's appetite, as did the

smells wafting from the kitchen. Upon entering, the archmage was

greeted by Otik himself, a rotund, cheerful middle-aged man, who

immediately remembered Antimodes, though the mage had not been a

guest in perhaps two years or more.